Moon's gray pallor
contrasts with color
targets attached to
Surveyor in these
epoch-making photo
graphs. The craft
snapped color pic
tures of the moon, but
not on color film. In
stead, its camera shot
three separate pic
tures of each scene
through orange, green, and blue filters. Working
under the supervision of JPL scientists, the Geo
graphic's color laboratory took the separation
negatives transmitted from the moon and printed
them through filters onto one piece of color film.
Close-up at right shows a gold-plated jet noz
zle that appears yellow against Surveyor's white
frame. Magenta tint came from failure of the
camera's green filter to register properly. Photo
metric disks, identical to one at JPL (inset), pro
vided the guide for reconstituting the color. Sub
tle color differences between small features help
geologists interpret the moon's surface structure.